By Kaylie Seed
Indigenous Canadian author Waubgeshig Rice’s fifth novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow was first released in October of 2018. This dystopian tale takes place in a small, remote Anishinaabe community where one day things go dark and don’t come back on. As winter approaches, the community must prepare for the long season by hunting and awaiting supplies to come up from the South. In Canada’s northern reserves, they are often difficult to get to and require a plane to fly in but in the winter time an ice road is made so that deliveries can be made. As the community awaits winter’s harsh grasp, Evan Whitesky finds that the community has been completely shut off from the rest of the world as internet, telephones, and televisions stop working. As winter approaches, it is up to the community to come together and collectively help each other out until they are able to figure out what is going on in the world. As the story progresses, eerie things begin happening in the community as people begin showing up seeking refuge from the chaos in the South.
Rice uses beautifully haunting imagery to describe what is going on in the community as turmoil ensues. The characters in Moon of the Crusted Snow turn to traditional Anishinaabe traditions to help them try to survive this dystopian world by coming together as a community - which doesn’t always work. Rice does an excellent job at portraying what is likely to happen when a society runs low on supplies and people get increasingly desperate: people begin to die, supplies start to run out, and people lose patience as their internal instinct to survive kicks in.
Rice uses traditional Ojibwe language throughout Moon of the Crusted Snow as a beautiful way to keep the language alive. When Residential Schools were running in Canada, a lot of Anishinaabe People lost their traditional language and traditions as Christianity was forced upon them. Some Anishinaabe People were able to keep tradition and their language alive in secret and are slowly trying to reclaim who they are through each generation thanks to Elders and this is evident in Moon of the Crusted Snow both in Rice’s writing and through what the characters do and say. Not only will the reader have the opportunity to read an incredible story, but they will also have the opportunity to learn something new if they are unfamiliar with Anishinaabe culture, tradition, and language.